It makes me so mad

But there is nothing I can do about it……

I sewed the binding onto the second lap quilt and finished stitching it down this morning. I put the quilt in the machine to wash it. I even put in synthrapol because this quilt had reds, greens, blacks, and white in it.

I checked the quilt before I threw it in the dryer and it looked fine. About 2/3 of the way through the drying I checked on the quilt and saw that one of the red fabrics ran and one of the green fabrics ran.

I quickly put it back in the washer and washed with synthrapol again. That cleared up the red, but not the green. I soaked it in oxyclean and that cleared up some of the green issues, but not all of them. That green fabric has been in my stash a long time so I have used it before and never had this problem. Or at least I never noticed it before….I guess that is more likely.

I washed it one last time in synthapol and decided to call it a day. This quilt will be washed many times and the green will probably continue to be a thorn in my side. It is only a lap quilt, but it was one I really liked. I liked all the white against the reds, greens, and blacks. I liked making the wonky star blocks and I liked using up a lot of my Christmas stash and my whites and off whites.

It is dry once again and you have to get up close to it to see the greens that have wicked onto the white fabrics. If I had only known I could have thrown this green fabric into the garbage. I hate that manufacturers sell fabric that is not color fast. It makes me really mad considering how much we pay for fabric.

Oh well I am sure I will get over it before long.

The cat enjoying the quilt before I added the binding.

 The offending green fabric sharing its color with the white fabric

What fabric disasters have you had? How did you fix the problem or did you just learn to live with it.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Traditional Quilts

Even though I am trying to get better at making art quilts I still have to make traditional quilts when I need a new lap quilt. I recently had 2 quilts quilted by a long arm  quilter in NJ (Kitty Zaccaro). I sewed the binding on one of them last weekend to finish it. The maple leaf blocks were from an online block exchange. It took me several years to figure out what to do with the blocks. I finally settled on a log cabin type setting. This allowed me to use up more of my fall fabrics from the stash. Unfortunately the quilt is not as large as I would like it since it shrunk up quite a bit after washing it. I think I will throw it on our guest bed for an extra quilt for a cold night.

The quilt is far from perfect. The blocks from the exchange had a bit of variation in the sizes and I think I am getting less accurate myself when I am piecing. Maybe I don’t see as well???? Well at least it is done and the blocks are now in a quilt.

If you are mainly an art quilter do you still make traditional utilitarian quilts?

I had to add some more photos. Apparently Chowder likes the new quilt. I caught him laying on it in the guest room. He must like the texture of it because he keeps rubbing his head and body over it.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

 

Stranger in a Strange Land

I just finished my challenge quilt for my 12 by 12 group.  It is completely made from hand dyed fabrics.

Is is supposed to represent the theme of foreign. So my idea was to have a nearly gray/purple landscape and add a strange looking tree in a bright yellow fabric in the foreground. Plus the tree is made from silk velvet which is a different fabric than the cottons of the landscape.  I call it "Stranger in a Strange Land" after the science fiction novel. I actually thought of the title while walking and came up with it before I even had an idea of what I was going to do for the quilt.

Interesting enough the gray/purple fabrics were a dyeing “failure”. I was trying to dye a gradation of purples, but they came out gray. But even fabrics that do not come out as expected are still wonderful and are very useful in a quilt.

Have you dyed fabrics that seem to be a disappointment, but turn out to be perfect for a quilt?

Thanks for reading.

Chris